I do believe that I miss some of the VERY small details about The Sims 2 -- for instance. I miss how the Sims 2 people would open the drawer in the kitchen when they were cooking. I do not miss: having to spend all day picking weeds because I had shrubs in the yard. I do not miss having to pick up 10 baby bottles because I had twins and couldn't pick them up, or walk, or do anything, because my sim was so tired. In ways, Sims 3 is SO much better because they made the game easier to navigate, easier to handle, and easier to focus on bigger things in life, like not having to pick up those bottles. But just having them vanish into thin air afterward isnt any good either. A compromise between Sims 2 and Sims 3 sounds perfect to me -- and I really think that's what they're trying to give us. The best of both worlds, in Sims 4.
I agree with you too. Im definetly not trying to say i didnt want anything from the sims 2 in the sims 4, i personally just dont want a game that is focused on making sure your sims survive. I would much rather have an easier game like the sims 3 but with more to do
This kind of realism sounds pretty boring to me It is a game of course, not real life. Attacking pimples doesn't sound like great gameplay to me. What people seem to forget, is that sims age very quickly, a day is like a year. So I think it's a good thing they left out details from daily life.
The things OP mentions, like pimples etc, were in Sims 1...and those things added to the sims, infact I found myself connecting with my sims, whereas now they seem like very pretty, lifeless dolls, and gameplay is less interesting than it used to be.
I dislike that with each new game, it becomes easier. Most gamers are intelligent, a bit of decent gameplay and challenge never hurt.
I hope the future of The Sims franchise is bright, but the way they are going, it's just going to be dumbed down and passionless.
Then you're playing the wrong game. This is not supposed to be a RPG.
I don't think so.
When Sims becomes a bit RPG-ish it's different from any RPG because... well it's the Sims!
Okay that sounded dumb, but let me explain what I mean. World Adventures had an adventuring element, a motives element and a design and domestic element. Mixed into one this meant you could build yourself a house in a foreign country, meet the locals, lead a life of danger and tomb raiding and display your discoveries in a crystal display case.
Where two genres meet you get some interesting interactions which go beyond what you'd find in either type of game.
If someone thinks that adds to the game then I think that's entirely justifiable.
No,its not, because W.A lack any replay value,has no real tourism and becomes boring quickly,Thesims is not an RPG its a Simulation game, and it making it an RPG you aint gonna get either a good RPG either a good thesims game.
TSM had tons of good atractions, but the goal oriented - quest system killed the game, just like World Adventures. Goal oriented gameplay is fun one time, after that it becomes boring for ever, that is why thesims is not a good game to introduce RPG-like gameplay systems.
I do believe that I miss some of the VERY small details about The Sims 2 -- for instance. I miss how the Sims 2 people would open the drawer in the kitchen when they were cooking. I do not miss: having to spend all day picking weeds because I had shrubs in the yard. I do not miss having to pick up 10 baby bottles because I had twins and couldn't pick them up, or walk, or do anything, because my sim was so tired. In ways, Sims 3 is SO much better because they made the game easier to navigate, easier to handle, and easier to focus on bigger things in life, like not having to pick up those bottles. But just having them vanish into thin air afterward isnt any good either. A compromise between Sims 2 and Sims 3 sounds perfect to me -- and I really think that's what they're trying to give us. The best of both worlds, in Sims 4.
I agree TS2 could overdo it at times. The needs could go down a bit too fast and TS3 did tweak that for the better. But being too easy is kind of boring in the long run. I was both excited and afraid of getting twins because it was such a challenge. Now you can ignore your kids for the better part of the day and that's fine.
However, eating a bowl of cereal or a full meal seem to satisfy the sims the same. That tends to make you just feed your sims ceral. All shortcuts make it easier at firts, but then you find yourself bored and you don't know why.
And TS3 is a text-based game. I get to hear so and so are attracted to my sim. But they act like they could care less. I change the wash type to delicate and nothing really happens. I talk about several subjects in theory, but it's always the same animations, with similar results.
I disagree that Thesims3 improved onto the details, actually it did cut several of those little details out off.
I would be happy if they are willing to bring all those back to how they were at thesims2 or better, i would like that School wasnt a rabithole so there were much more interaction options into it because keep reading notifications out of a blackout building isnt somethin that should be in a supost "Open" world.
People will donwload mods nonetheless because there are things that EA just cant do, and if the game is CC friendly and well coded like Thesims2, it will hardly happen to crash anything. I just Hope we dont need to use Mods just to make the game work.
People around here have a lot of details that they could bring back from previous games.
I have a feeling that one of the reasons we don't have open schools rather than rabbit holes, in the Sims 3 in addition to the extra time it would take them to make them, and the extra NPCs is frame rate. It takes a lot more processing power to deal with multiple lots at once. They'd also have to have a lot more teenagers and children per map, otherwise the classes would be empty. I don't think EA has ever included more than about eighty or ninety playable sims on a single map in the Sims 3.
Maybe they'll have a lot more subhoods in the Sims 4, but I doubt it, because I remember someone at EA actually saying that would be fewer loading schools. It might solve the framerate and loading times issue, if we could have things on multiple maps through. However, it would be very upsetting if the maps were much smaller than the Sims 3 maps and you could only really create the base hood map. Its bad enough that we only have three vacations destinations, a single university and one future local to choose from in the Sims 3.
An open school actually wouldn't be a "small detail."
Then you're playing the wrong game. This is not supposed to be a RPG.
I don't think so.
When Sims becomes a bit RPG-ish it's different from any RPG because... well it's the Sims!
Okay that sounded dumb, but let me explain what I mean. World Adventures had an adventuring element, a motives element and a design and domestic element. Mixed into one this meant you could build yourself a house in a foreign country, meet the locals, lead a life of danger and tomb raiding and display your discoveries in a crystal display case.
Where two genres meet you get some interesting interactions which go beyond what you'd find in either type of game.
If someone thinks that adds to the game then I think that's entirely justifiable.
Actually, playing WA, it doesn't feel liker TS anymore. Which is a shame, because TS is basically the only game of its kind. Anaimal Crossing, for instance, is a lot more about managing the town and hardly antything life-like. There are plenty of RPGs out there. No need to highjack the one life simulator we have. And, like I said, EA seem to agree, because they quickly moved on from that kind of expansion and had major shake ups in their staff.
Actually, i was talking about "Bringing all the small details back" + "Include an open school instead of a rabithole because there is a lot of space for tons of small details in school or work day-to-day life".
I wonder that if with No Cast, the new engine and a cartoon graphics there is improvement space for better gameplay designs like that and sub-hoods also.
This kind of realism sounds pretty boring to me It is a game of course, not real life. Attacking pimples doesn't sound like great gameplay to me. What people seem to forget, is that sims age very quickly, a day is like a year. So I think it's a good thing they left out details from daily life.
The things OP mentions, like pimples etc, were in Sims 1...and those things added to the sims, infact I found myself connecting with my sims, whereas now they seem like very pretty, lifeless dolls, and gameplay is less interesting than it used to be.
I dislike that with each new game, it becomes easier. Most gamers are intelligent, a bit of decent gameplay and challenge never hurt.
I hope the future of The Sims franchise is bright, but the way they are going, it's just going to be dumbed down and passionless.
But what if I tell you I totally don't recognize this. If I wouldn't feel a connection with my sims, I wouldn't be able to play, it's that plain and simple. The women I identify with, the guys I fancy a bit. And they all have their own character, which arises by the way they look (their eyes are important).
Connecting with my sims isn't a question if them having pimples or not, or brushing their teeth. It's the way they look, act and what they go through during a generation. They are most certainly no dolls, because I don't treat them as dolls, and they don't lack passion either. I didn't feel very intelligent by the way, cleaning up dirt all the time. Creating story's around my sims feels much more challenging.
Actually, playing WA, it doesn't feel liker TS anymore. Which is a shame, because TS is basically the only game of its kind. Anaimal Crossing, for instance, is a lot more about managing the town and hardly antything life-like. There are plenty of RPGs out there. No need to highjack the one life simulator we have. And, like I said, EA seem to agree, because they quickly moved on from that kind of expansion and had major shake ups in their staff.
That's because you made your own blueprint what 'TS' is. To me WA is very much The Sims, because it's the game from where I began to love The Sims. A lot of people I know still consider WA their favourite expansion (among them also S2 fans), which is an achievement considering the fact it was the first one for 3. It added real gameplay you can fill hours and hours with.
This kind of realism sounds pretty boring to me It is a game of course, not real life. Attacking pimples doesn't sound like great gameplay to me. What people seem to forget, is that sims age very quickly, a day is like a year. So I think it's a good thing they left out details from daily life.
The things OP mentions, like pimples etc, were in Sims 1...and those things added to the sims, infact I found myself connecting with my sims, whereas now they seem like very pretty, lifeless dolls, and gameplay is less interesting than it used to be.
I dislike that with each new game, it becomes easier. Most gamers are intelligent, a bit of decent gameplay and challenge never hurt.
I hope the future of The Sims franchise is bright, but the way they are going, it's just going to be dumbed down and passionless.
But what if I tell you I totally don't recognize this. If I wouldn't feel a connection with my sims, I wouldn't be able to play, it's that plain and simple. The women I identify with, the guys I fancy a bit. And they all have their own character, which arises by the way they look (their eyes are important).
Connecting with my sims isn't a question if them having pimples or not, or brushing their teeth. It's the way they look, act and what they go through during a generation. They are most certainly no dolls, because I don't treat them as dolls, and they don't lack passion either. I didn't feel very intelligent by the way, cleaning up dirt all the time. Creating story's around my sims feels much more challenging.
Actually, playing WA, it doesn't feel liker TS anymore. Which is a shame, because TS is basically the only game of its kind. Anaimal Crossing, for instance, is a lot more about managing the town and hardly antything life-like. There are plenty of RPGs out there. No need to highjack the one life simulator we have. And, like I said, EA seem to agree, because they quickly moved on from that kind of expansion and had major shake ups in their staff.
That's because you made your own blueprint what 'TS' is. To me WA is very much The Sims, because it's the game from where I began to love The Sims. A lot of people I know still consider WA their favourite expansion (among them also S2 fans), which is an achievement considering the fact it was the first one for 3. It added real gameplay you can fill hours and hours with.
Well, if you only stated loving The Sims when it tried changing genres and completely abandoned its core gameplay, that says a lot about how you feel about the game.
And I feel great you have so much imagination. But I don't want to buy a game and have to imagine it's good and imagine it feels alive. I want it to actually be. The sims in TS3 are quite stoic, unvaried in the manners they act and are animated. And the fact they do everything by wooshes and getting things out of their bums does distract a lot. All the shortcuts make you manage your sims more than actually live through them. They end up indeed feeling like dolls.
I often get bored, delete sims, replace them, start new storylines and storytelling because they feel like props in out staged little movies. No connection. But in TS2 (which you really missed out on), the way they reacted and interacted with their environment, with far more spontaneous and individualized animations and the way things were very detailed and life-like, I'd never delete a sim. I didn't want to tell a story. i wanted to see their lives unfold. And it was much more unpredictable, fun, laughable and, occasionally, even heartbreaking.
PS: The gameplay you talk about may take hours and ours to play. But those are counted, numbered and soon depleted. Because you finished the script established. Good sandbox never exhausts its possibilities, because there are no scripts and each time is fresh and new.
In a couple of weeks you can literally play all a TS3 expansion has to offer. TS@ was so detailed that months later you still found out things you had no idea.
Well, if you only stated loving The Sims when it tried changing genres and completely abandoned its core gameplay, that says a lot about how you feel about the game.
I have no idea what you mean by that. It's just a game I like to play, it's not a religion or something. I'm not a die hard faithful Simsfan, the game is just my tool to have a good time. (if that is what you mean of course )
And I feel great you have so much imagination. But I don't want to buy a game and have to imagine it's good and imagine it feels alive. I want it to actually be. The sims in TS3 are quite stoic, unvaried in the manners they act and are animated. And the fact they do everything by wooshes and getting things out of their bums does distract a lot. All the shortcuts make you manage your sims more than actually live through them. They end up indeed feeling like dolls.
That's what I meant, I can understand it will work that way if you can't imagine things and fill in what you see on the screen inside your head. Like I said, in that case the gameplay must be poor. I only know it works for me that way and for a lot of other people (the storytellers). And I don't know if pitying me for having missed Sims 2 is necessary. The fact it worked for you doesn't mean it would work for me. We're just different types of players I guess. I don't want my game to decide too much for me, I make the decisions. It's hard to explain, but I'm not imagining things to feel alive, it just happens (like it apparently happened to you in 2). I create a sim (or it's born in my game) and as soon as I start playing with him or her they just come alive. With their own characters, based on how they look into the world. Midnight Hollow is released and a whole new storyline presents itself inside my head. All I have to do is fit it into my sim's happy life.
I often get bored, delete sims, replace them, start new storylines and storytelling because they feel like props in out staged little movies. No connection. But in TS2 (which you really missed out on), the way they reacted and interacted with their environment, with far more spontaneous and individualized animations and the way things were very detailed and life-like, I'd never delete a sim. I didn't want to tell a story. i wanted to see their lives unfold. And it was much more unpredictable, fun, laughable and, occasionally, even heartbreaking.
PS: The gameplay you talk about may take hours and ours to play. But those are counted, numbered and soon depleted. Because you finished the script established. Good sandbox never exhausts its possibilities, because there are no scripts and each time is fresh and new.
In a couple of weeks you can literally play all a TS3 expansion has to offer. TS@ was so detailed that months later you still found out things you had no idea.
I never delete sims (cause that's murder :P ) and the WA gameplay indeed is not the sandbox thing. But it's an addition to the sandbox a lot of people love. If you prefer the 100% sandbox thing, then WA is not for you. I don't depend on WA, i've played 9 generations without it, then I did China in 10, Egypt in 14, France in 16 and China again in 18. Which leaves hours and hours and whole generations of playing without it
You can play 3 in a hurry. But why would you? It's not about discovering things, it's about what you let your sims do with it.
I'm curious by the way (for I do believe you if you say 2 kept having sursprises), can you give examples of finding things you had no idea about? Because this is actually the reason I want to like 4: when I've played every career and challenge and adventure, it's done. We do agree there.
However, eating a bowl of cereal or a full meal seem to satisfy the sims the same. That tends to make you just feed your sims ceral. All shortcuts make it easier at firts, but then you find yourself bored and you don't know why.
QFT
Grant said that they are going to remedy this by food having nutritional value. So your sim will gain weight if all they do is eat unhealthily. Sims will also get bored of the same meal night after night, which encourages sims to spice it up from time to time. I hope that leftovers aren't as satisfying as TS3 leftovers. My small households barely cook as they always have leftovers to eat.
And TS3 is a text-based game. I get to hear so and so are attracted to my sim. But they act like they could care less. I change the wash type to delicate and nothing really happens. I talk about several subjects in theory, but it's always the same animations, with similar results.
I am really hoping as they have done away with all the animations and started again from scratch, that they have different animations for every different sim to sim interaction. Too many are shared, like congratulating a sim on anything or admiring a sim being the same interaction about enthusing about anyhting.
No,its not, because W.A lack any replay value,has no real tourism and becomes boring quickly,Thesims is not an RPG its a Simulation game, and it making it an RPG you aint gonna get either a good RPG either a good thesims game.
TSM had tons of good atractions, but the goal oriented - quest system killed the game, just like World Adventures. Goal oriented gameplay is fun one time, after that it becomes boring for ever, that is why thesims is not a good game to introduce RPG-like gameplay systems.
I was glad about the no tourism! I hate touristy things!
While Word Adventures may lack replay value for some it does not for others. I don't think the failing of World Adventures was the questing element. The idea was pretty incredible; mixing questing with everyday life is interesting, but the mix has to be right.
I think the failing was to make the questing too rigid. Both Medieval and World Adventures suffer from having irritating time restrictions. The worlds suffer from being a little bit too quiet. They needed a bit more 'life'. Surely Egyptians don't stay inside all day and night...
I think the failing was to make the questing too rigid. Both Medieval and World Adventures suffer from having irritating time restrictions. The world's also suffer from being a little bit too quiet. They needed a bit more 'life'. Surely Egyptians don't stay inside all day and night...
- It Needed Life - period.
Egypt and all Thesims3 towns had the very same problem.
I'm curious by the way (for I do believe you if you say 2 kept having sursprises), can you give examples of finding things you had no idea about? Because this is actually the reason I want to like 4: when I've played every career and challenge and adventure, it's done. We do agree there.
I've collected a few from SnootySims. Before the list, though, I'd like to discuss one in particular for example's sake:
Did you know that..?
- you can alter Interests by buying and reading magazines?
The Sims had Interests (like Sports or Politics). Their conversations weren't random. The balloons images actually depicted exactly what they were talking about and the other Sim reacted accordingly. That in itself was amazing, but, to make it better, reading magazine might actually change a Sim's interest, just like in real life.
Furthermore, Sims, in their dialogs, told what was going on in their lives. A cheated on Sim would rant to everybody. A mother might tell another their son Snook Out or Got Married. it was incredibly lively. And the Sims reacted in their expressions, reacting to the conversation. Not getting a text on the corner ("The Sim thinks this is boring".) So much on TS3 happens through text while the Sims themselves go on completely unfazed. In fact, you can predict the outcome of pretty much every interaction, while in TS2, it was much more unpredictable. You may have a Sim in love with another that despised them.
Preferences and favorites actually mattered. In TS3 all signs are compatible. The Sims show less personality. And pretty much all of them react the same way to most of what goes on.
Well, here goes the rest of my list:
Did you know that..?
- 2 social bunnies can make out with each other?
- a child with negative aspiration may stomp flowers, ruin paintings or even smash an urn?
- a Lazy Sim with low mood may smash the alarm clock when it wakes him up?
- a teen can runaway if it has a bad relationship (-20/-20) with all household members?
- also that you can overfeed your fish?
- baby's/kids/toddlers taken away by the social worker may turn up for adoption?
- if permission to go out is denied, the Sneak Out option for teens comes available on the phone after 10 pm?
- really sloppy Sims (0-1 point) can salvage money from the trashcan?
- Sim-made paintings rise in value a lot after the painter dies?
- Sims can watch TV in bed?
- Sims that went through University have the option to sleep on the floor?
- Sloppy Sims can lick a plate 'clean'?
- Sloppy Sims may occasionally pee in the shower or the bushes?
- teens get zits if their 5 day average of hygiene is below 50%?
- that mean Sims can cheat with chess and darts by clicking on the dartboard or chessboard?
- the mechanic can also be electrocuted during fixing something?
- toddlers that learned to walk, may sneak out of the crib autonomously?
- when 2 Sims in a house follow the same career and 1 is higher up the career ladder, that Sim can 'pull some strings' to get the other promoted?
How cool is this last one, which, until today, I had no idea.
- when a Sim is on the phone, another Sim can join that conversation by clicking on another phone?
- when you have 2 or more PCs, your Sims can play a LAN game?
- you can free the burglar after it's captured in the police car?
- you can overwater your plant which make them all brown and dead?
- you can pay off a Sim that kicks your trashcan?
- you can watch TV from the toilet?
- your Sim can swim on its back while clicking him in the pool?
All in all, everything was thought out. When you owned a business, you did own every aspect of it and could really do everything you were supposed to do. When you went to a restaurant, you could steal a bite, throw food at a Sim, hold a conversation, cheer or even propose on the table. There were hosts, waiters, cooks. And that was a lot of fun and much more life-like. Everything they decided to do, was realized to its fullest. There were no Proms you only get texts about or Haunted Houses or Tree Houses you didn't really see what was going on. I could go on and on, but I think this summarizes what people miss:
Not exactly the same gameplay of TS2, but the feeling of "wow, they really thought of everything" instead of "I can't believe this major component is missing". Seriously, when TS3 Sims get married, even after Generations, they exchange rings and the rings never show up on their fingers! Which is a feature TS2 had.
Actually, i was talking about "Bringing all the small details back" + "Include an open school instead of a rabithole because there is a lot of space for tons of small details in school or work day-to-day life".
I wonder that if with No Cast, the new engine and a cartoon graphics there is improvement space for better gameplay designs like that and sub-hoods also.
v12creator,
I still remember hearing that they'll be fewer loading screens through, which makes me think that there won't be a lot more subhoods. Even without create a style, its hard to imagine seem less changing between maps, even smaller ones, especially if some of them will have a lot of objects and a lot of different lots.
i was thinking about the game and i am hoping they add realistic details to this Sims game. For example like Sims get pimples again and have to put cream on it, a Sim has to brush teeth and if they don't they get a bad breath moodlet, a Sim baby gets a diaper rash if the diaper is not changed , a baby can get sick and when a Sim adult gets sick they show it they need to eat soup and stay laying on the couch and it effects them more than just a moodlet that can get ignored. maybe a Sim woman needs to brush her hair or shave her legs, maybe have the teachers give the kid detention and have to stay after maybe parent teacher interaction. College classes in the Sims 3 were interactive and so are the careers, adding that to more things would make it way more interesting. small appropriate details to make the game better. every Sims game fro,m 1 to 3 have been improving on that, why not take it another step further in the Sims 4. i love that there will be actual moods and i think it would be cool to actually have small details matter too. it keeps things interested and maybe even make more people want the Sims. That way people will see the game more instead of downloading so many mods that it crashes the computer showing that that person can no longer play until their computer is fixed. Just a thought about what i am looking forward to in the Sims 4. Each time the game improves a little more. I would hate to have to start my collection over for the same thing only better graphics. i am so excited for the Sims please make it worth the restart of our collections...
Well first off start using paragraphs, would make it a lot easier to read than having a wall of text.
I would hope some of those small things are added, like being ill and having to actually look after yourself but things like sims getting spots would just be tedious.
I don't think we're going to see too much though as EA would want to save stuff for the expansion packs. I remember being disappointed by lack of content at the sims 3 launch and I think this will be the same.
I really enjoyed how detailed TS2 was. Getting the bottle from the fridge and cleaning up after. Having pimples (which only happened if your teen didn't have proper hygiene). Entering the car, maneuvering it...
It felt more alive and I never got bored.
TS3 expansions get boring fast, because soon you did all that there was to do, they are too goal oriented and skimp on life simulation.
I agree ...
if there were a Sims 2 with an open world like in Sims 3
(or at least an automatic aging + Life simulation of Sims that are not on your active lot)
I would play this game instead of Sims 3
Not exactly the same gameplay of TS2, but the feeling of "wow, they really thought of everything" instead of "I can't believe this major component is missing". Seriously, when TS3 Sims get married, even after Generations, they exchange rings and the rings never show up on their fingers! Which is a feature TS2 had.
I completely forgot about the wedding rings, it's so tedious in TS3 to have to put the ring on the sims afterwards, this would also be a good way of knowing if a townie is married or not right off the bat.
What you said about interests and conversations making the game more unpredictable also makes a lot of sense. Every single sim to sim interaction had it's own animation which made conversations so much livelier, there were also much more interactions than TS3.
I would also prefer if they went back to grouping interactions by what they do not how they are perceived. E.g a kiss sub group rather than all kisses being under romance.
Thanks for your reply, I do agree pretty much with the things you mention that are annoying in 3. I don't like it for example when a new interaction (hurray!) is announced and it turns out to be exacttly the same animation when they talk about other stuff (blurk..). That's why I don't like socializing with my sims on a game basis, it's boring. And it's boring because it's nothing more than clicking on an option which produces similar interactions until their relationbar is filled so you can start doing other things.
It would also be great if relationships would be more complicated then they are now. They hate or like each other equally, which isn't very realistic. It would be funny if it would be possible for a sim to be totally in love with someone who wouldn't love him back.
So yeah, you did convince me some Sims 2 things should be brought back in the game if it contained more interaction and originality. As long as I don't have to live without the things I love about 3
Comments
The things OP mentions, like pimples etc, were in Sims 1...and those things added to the sims, infact I found myself connecting with my sims, whereas now they seem like very pretty, lifeless dolls, and gameplay is less interesting than it used to be.
I dislike that with each new game, it becomes easier. Most gamers are intelligent, a bit of decent gameplay and challenge never hurt.
I hope the future of The Sims franchise is bright, but the way they are going, it's just going to be dumbed down and passionless.
No,its not, because W.A lack any replay value,has no real tourism and becomes boring quickly,Thesims is not an RPG its a Simulation game, and it making it an RPG you aint gonna get either a good RPG either a good thesims game.
TSM had tons of good atractions, but the goal oriented - quest system killed the game, just like World Adventures. Goal oriented gameplay is fun one time, after that it becomes boring for ever, that is why thesims is not a good game to introduce RPG-like gameplay systems.
I agree TS2 could overdo it at times. The needs could go down a bit too fast and TS3 did tweak that for the better. But being too easy is kind of boring in the long run. I was both excited and afraid of getting twins because it was such a challenge. Now you can ignore your kids for the better part of the day and that's fine.
However, eating a bowl of cereal or a full meal seem to satisfy the sims the same. That tends to make you just feed your sims ceral. All shortcuts make it easier at firts, but then you find yourself bored and you don't know why.
And TS3 is a text-based game. I get to hear so and so are attracted to my sim. But they act like they could care less. I change the wash type to delicate and nothing really happens. I talk about several subjects in theory, but it's always the same animations, with similar results.
I have a feeling that one of the reasons we don't have open schools rather than rabbit holes, in the Sims 3 in addition to the extra time it would take them to make them, and the extra NPCs is frame rate. It takes a lot more processing power to deal with multiple lots at once. They'd also have to have a lot more teenagers and children per map, otherwise the classes would be empty. I don't think EA has ever included more than about eighty or ninety playable sims on a single map in the Sims 3.
Maybe they'll have a lot more subhoods in the Sims 4, but I doubt it, because I remember someone at EA actually saying that would be fewer loading schools. It might solve the framerate and loading times issue, if we could have things on multiple maps through. However, it would be very upsetting if the maps were much smaller than the Sims 3 maps and you could only really create the base hood map. Its bad enough that we only have three vacations destinations, a single university and one future local to choose from in the Sims 3.
An open school actually wouldn't be a "small detail."
Actually, playing WA, it doesn't feel liker TS anymore. Which is a shame, because TS is basically the only game of its kind. Anaimal Crossing, for instance, is a lot more about managing the town and hardly antything life-like. There are plenty of RPGs out there. No need to highjack the one life simulator we have. And, like I said, EA seem to agree, because they quickly moved on from that kind of expansion and had major shake ups in their staff.
Actually, i was talking about "Bringing all the small details back" + "Include an open school instead of a rabithole because there is a lot of space for tons of small details in school or work day-to-day life".
I wonder that if with No Cast, the new engine and a cartoon graphics there is improvement space for better gameplay designs like that and sub-hoods also.
Connecting with my sims isn't a question if them having pimples or not, or brushing their teeth. It's the way they look, act and what they go through during a generation. They are most certainly no dolls, because I don't treat them as dolls, and they don't lack passion either. I didn't feel very intelligent by the way, cleaning up dirt all the time. Creating story's around my sims feels much more challenging.
That's because you made your own blueprint what 'TS' is. To me WA is very much The Sims, because it's the game from where I began to love The Sims. A lot of people I know still consider WA their favourite expansion (among them also S2 fans), which is an achievement considering the fact it was the first one for 3. It added real gameplay you can fill hours and hours with.
Well, if you only stated loving The Sims when it tried changing genres and completely abandoned its core gameplay, that says a lot about how you feel about the game.
And I feel great you have so much imagination. But I don't want to buy a game and have to imagine it's good and imagine it feels alive. I want it to actually be. The sims in TS3 are quite stoic, unvaried in the manners they act and are animated. And the fact they do everything by wooshes and getting things out of their bums does distract a lot. All the shortcuts make you manage your sims more than actually live through them. They end up indeed feeling like dolls.
I often get bored, delete sims, replace them, start new storylines and storytelling because they feel like props in out staged little movies. No connection. But in TS2 (which you really missed out on), the way they reacted and interacted with their environment, with far more spontaneous and individualized animations and the way things were very detailed and life-like, I'd never delete a sim. I didn't want to tell a story. i wanted to see their lives unfold. And it was much more unpredictable, fun, laughable and, occasionally, even heartbreaking.
PS: The gameplay you talk about may take hours and ours to play. But those are counted, numbered and soon depleted. Because you finished the script established. Good sandbox never exhausts its possibilities, because there are no scripts and each time is fresh and new.
In a couple of weeks you can literally play all a TS3 expansion has to offer. TS@ was so detailed that months later you still found out things you had no idea.
That's what I meant, I can understand it will work that way if you can't imagine things and fill in what you see on the screen inside your head. Like I said, in that case the gameplay must be poor. I only know it works for me that way and for a lot of other people (the storytellers). And I don't know if pitying me for having missed Sims 2 is necessary. The fact it worked for you doesn't mean it would work for me. We're just different types of players I guess. I don't want my game to decide too much for me, I make the decisions. It's hard to explain, but I'm not imagining things to feel alive, it just happens (like it apparently happened to you in 2). I create a sim (or it's born in my game) and as soon as I start playing with him or her they just come alive. With their own characters, based on how they look into the world. Midnight Hollow is released and a whole new storyline presents itself inside my head. All I have to do is fit it into my sim's happy life.
I never delete sims (cause that's murder :P ) and the WA gameplay indeed is not the sandbox thing. But it's an addition to the sandbox a lot of people love. If you prefer the 100% sandbox thing, then WA is not for you. I don't depend on WA, i've played 9 generations without it, then I did China in 10, Egypt in 14, France in 16 and China again in 18. Which leaves hours and hours and whole generations of playing without it
You can play 3 in a hurry. But why would you? It's not about discovering things, it's about what you let your sims do with it.
I'm curious by the way (for I do believe you if you say 2 kept having sursprises), can you give examples of finding things you had no idea about? Because this is actually the reason I want to like 4: when I've played every career and challenge and adventure, it's done. We do agree there.
Grant said that they are going to remedy this by food having nutritional value. So your sim will gain weight if all they do is eat unhealthily. Sims will also get bored of the same meal night after night, which encourages sims to spice it up from time to time. I hope that leftovers aren't as satisfying as TS3 leftovers. My small households barely cook as they always have leftovers to eat.
I am really hoping as they have done away with all the animations and started again from scratch, that they have different animations for every different sim to sim interaction. Too many are shared, like congratulating a sim on anything or admiring a sim being the same interaction about enthusing about anyhting.
I was glad about the no tourism! I hate touristy things!
While Word Adventures may lack replay value for some it does not for others. I don't think the failing of World Adventures was the questing element. The idea was pretty incredible; mixing questing with everyday life is interesting, but the mix has to be right.
I think the failing was to make the questing too rigid. Both Medieval and World Adventures suffer from having irritating time restrictions. The worlds suffer from being a little bit too quiet. They needed a bit more 'life'. Surely Egyptians don't stay inside all day and night...
- It Needed Life - period.
Egypt and all Thesims3 towns had the very same problem.
TSM in this matter is way better, with no doubt.
I've collected a few from SnootySims. Before the list, though, I'd like to discuss one in particular for example's sake:
The Sims had Interests (like Sports or Politics). Their conversations weren't random. The balloons images actually depicted exactly what they were talking about and the other Sim reacted accordingly. That in itself was amazing, but, to make it better, reading magazine might actually change a Sim's interest, just like in real life.
Furthermore, Sims, in their dialogs, told what was going on in their lives. A cheated on Sim would rant to everybody. A mother might tell another their son Snook Out or Got Married. it was incredibly lively. And the Sims reacted in their expressions, reacting to the conversation. Not getting a text on the corner ("The Sim thinks this is boring".) So much on TS3 happens through text while the Sims themselves go on completely unfazed. In fact, you can predict the outcome of pretty much every interaction, while in TS2, it was much more unpredictable. You may have a Sim in love with another that despised them.
Preferences and favorites actually mattered. In TS3 all signs are compatible. The Sims show less personality. And pretty much all of them react the same way to most of what goes on.
Well, here goes the rest of my list:
How cool is this last one, which, until today, I had no idea.
All in all, everything was thought out. When you owned a business, you did own every aspect of it and could really do everything you were supposed to do. When you went to a restaurant, you could steal a bite, throw food at a Sim, hold a conversation, cheer or even propose on the table. There were hosts, waiters, cooks. And that was a lot of fun and much more life-like. Everything they decided to do, was realized to its fullest. There were no Proms you only get texts about or Haunted Houses or Tree Houses you didn't really see what was going on. I could go on and on, but I think this summarizes what people miss:
Not exactly the same gameplay of TS2, but the feeling of "wow, they really thought of everything" instead of "I can't believe this major component is missing". Seriously, when TS3 Sims get married, even after Generations, they exchange rings and the rings never show up on their fingers! Which is a feature TS2 had.
v12creator,
I still remember hearing that they'll be fewer loading screens through, which makes me think that there won't be a lot more subhoods. Even without create a style, its hard to imagine seem less changing between maps, even smaller ones, especially if some of them will have a lot of objects and a lot of different lots.
Well first off start using paragraphs, would make it a lot easier to read than having a wall of text.
I would hope some of those small things are added, like being ill and having to actually look after yourself but things like sims getting spots would just be tedious.
I don't think we're going to see too much though as EA would want to save stuff for the expansion packs. I remember being disappointed by lack of content at the sims 3 launch and I think this will be the same.
I agree ...
if there were a Sims 2 with an open world like in Sims 3
(or at least an automatic aging + Life simulation of Sims that are not on your active lot)
I would play this game instead of Sims 3
What you said about interests and conversations making the game more unpredictable also makes a lot of sense. Every single sim to sim interaction had it's own animation which made conversations so much livelier, there were also much more interactions than TS3.
I would also prefer if they went back to grouping interactions by what they do not how they are perceived. E.g a kiss sub group rather than all kisses being under romance.
It would also be great if relationships would be more complicated then they are now. They hate or like each other equally, which isn't very realistic. It would be funny if it would be possible for a sim to be totally in love with someone who wouldn't love him back.
So yeah, you did convince me some Sims 2 things should be brought back in the game if it contained more interaction and originality. As long as I don't have to live without the things I love about 3